Elflord #1 Samurai #1 Windblade #1 Value? - Barry Blair Nightwynd Productions 1 1

[Eclipse9965]

Hey everyone, I have been trying to find out the value of the following books by Barry Blair (when he started out with Nightwynd Productions): Elflord #1, Samurai #1, and Windblade #1 in NM condition.

This has proven very difficult as there is very little sales history online (according to my research).

According to comicbookrealm, Elflord #1 is worth $200 as a 9.4, but a 3.0 copy of the same book recently sold for $215 CAD on eBay.

Obviously I think they are undervaluing that book which makes me wonder what it could really be worth as a 9.4.

The value for Samurai and Windblade has come up empty handed. No clues for those ones.

I was wondering if any of you had any insight.

Thanks!

[OtherEric]

On 2/3/2021 at 3:47 PM, Eclipse9965 said:

Hey everyone, I have been trying to find out the value of the following books by Barry Blair (when he started out with Nightwynd Productions): Elflord #1, Samurai #1, and Windblade #1 in NM condition.

This has proven very difficult as there is very little sales history online (according to my research).

According to comicbookrealm, Elflord #1 is worth $200 as a 9.4, but a 3.0 copy of the same book recently sold for $215 CAD on eBay.

Obviously I think they are undervaluing that book which makes me wonder what it could really be worth as a 9.4.

The value for Samurai and Windblade has come up empty handed. No clues for those ones.

I was wondering if any of you had any insight.

Thanks!

I really don't have much info.  I suspect this is very much a specialist item... a high grade copy (or even a lower grade one) could go for quite a bit to the right buyer, but finding the right buyer could be quite difficult.

[lou_fine]

5 hours ago, OtherEric said:

a high grade copy (or even a lower grade one) could go for quite a bit to the right buyer, but finding the right buyer could be quite difficult.

Personally, I believe that finding a copy of these truly HTF early 80's books in true HG condition would be a lot more difficult than finding a buyer for them.    

[Toombs]

I have a copy of Windblade #1 by Barry Blair in high grade and signed by the artist Barry Blair.  I have seen some copies of this book in various grades on Ebay sold by the same person go from $100 to over $200 but these were low to mid grade copies.  The Key Collector app has Windblade #1 listed in high grade for $250 which I believe is conservative considering how hard it is to find. 

[Toombs]

There is currently on Ebay a listing for a Samurai #1 asking about $1,200.

[divad]

List them and find out . . . I'm not sure these type of threads are appropriate here. Seems like a masked selling thread to me.

[seanfingh]

There have been several great threads on these books over the years, including some where people have posted jaw-dropping copies. In my opinion, there will never be enough transactions for there to be "an established value" for these books. Right now they are too rare in high grade and the people who have them for the most part do not want to sell.

You need a motivated buyer to be both liquid and involved at the time of a sale to get a "maximum value" sale. It is much like the esoteric SS market. If the right people aren't involved, a book might sell for 5-10% of what a motivated purchaser would pay.  

[GM8]

Anyone know the print run on these? I didn't know these existed...always thought my Aircel copies were the first runs...LOL. Those are impossible to sell.

[Eclipse9965]

Thanks for everyone's insight, good thoughts. Much better insight than the comments I received in Facebook groups haha

[Eclipse9965]

On 2/22/2021 at 11:11 PM, divad said:

List them and find out . . . I'm not sure these type of threads are appropriate here. Seems like a masked selling thread to me.

I definitely want to list them, just want to make sure I don't go too low or ridiculously high

[Eclipse9965]

 

On 2/25/2021 at 12:57 PM, seanfingh said:

There have been several great threads on these books over the years, including some where people have posted jaw-dropping copies. In my opinion, there will never be enough transactions for there to be "an established value" for these books. Right now they are too rare in high grade and the people who have them for the most part do not want to sell.

You need a motivated buyer to be both liquid and involved at the time of a sale to get a "maximum value" sale. It is much like the esoteric SS market. If the right people aren't involved, a book might sell for 5-10% of what a motivated purchaser would pay.  

This is a great thought, thanks for that. I agree with your comparison to the SS market.

[Eclipse9965]

On 2/22/2021 at 7:46 PM, Toombs said:

I have a copy of Windblade #1 by Barry Blair in high grade and signed by the artist Barry Blair.  I have seen some copies of this book in various grades on Ebay sold by the same person go from $100 to over $200 but these were low to mid grade copies.  The Key Collector app has Windblade #1 listed in high grade for $250 which I believe is conservative considering how hard it is to find. 

It definitely seems undervalued in Key Collector.

[Qalyar]

Stuff like this is always really, really hard to price. It is rare. In high grades, it is very rare. But at the same time, it's pretty niche stuff, so prices are going to be all over the board, depending on who notices the sale... or has resources on hand... or a dozen other factors.

I will say that these are better regarded than most B&W indies. They're a long way from TMNT, but generally high grade (and especially 9.6+ copies, to the extent that there are such things), certainly shouldn't be cheap books.

[Geoff H]

On 2/22/2021 at 5:55 PM, Toombs said:

There is currently on Ebay a listing for a Samurai #1 asking about $1,200.

Do you have a working link for this listing? 

And -- is this the 1985 Aircel first series of Samurai #1 (pictured)? I have a beautiful copy of this book (which I paid something like 50 bucks for back in the 80s -- yikes!). When I look on ebay now, I see copies going for just a few bucks....

Edited March 27, 2021 by Geoff H

[Qalyar]

53 minutes ago, Geoff H said:

Do you have a working link for this listing? 

And -- is this the 1985 Aircel first series of Samurai #1 (pictured)? I have a beautiful copy of this book (which I paid something like 50 bucks for back in the 80s -- yikes!). When I look on ebay now, I see copies going for just a few bucks....

Link. I think that's much more aspirational than reasonable, to be honest, but if they get it, good on 'em, I suppose.

Anyway, no, these aren't the Aircel series. The Aircel books were printed in much larger volumes and were sort of "indie comic spec books" for a hot minute ... but there's way, way too many of them for that to have been realistic. It didn't help that Blair's later career wasn't particularly impactful (and of course, his tragic death in 2010 probably bookends any chance of his series being seriously revived).

However, the Nightwynd stuff is actually quite scarce, especially in high grade. Are they $1200 scarce? Ehhhh....

[Geoff H]

Ah -- now I get it. 

Thanks for filling me in. 

[Eclipse9965]

I just wanted to give everyone an update. I started this thread because I had someone asking me to sell their copies of Samurai #1 and #2 from Nightwynd Productions. I couldn't find any information about those books so I made this thread.

I did end up selling them though.

A 9.4 copy of Samurai #1 sold for $950 USD and a 9.4 copy of #2 sold for $750 USD. It took about a month and a half for these to sell on eBay.

Afterwards, I put two slightly lower grade copies of the same books for sale.

A 7.0-8.0 copy of Samurai #1 sold for $900 USD and an 8.0 copy of #2 sold for $720 USD.

At the end of the day, it seems that for these specialty items you just have to price them high and wait for offers.

I hope this can help someone else who someday will be looking for the value of these comics as well.

Edited June 20, 2021 by Eclipse9965

[SuperBird]

2 hours ago, Eclipse9965 said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just wanted to give everyone an update. I started this thread because I had someone asking me to sell their copies of Samurai #1 and #2 from Nightwynd Productions. I couldn't find any information about those books so I made this thread.

I did end up selling them though.

A 9.4 copy of Samurai #1 sold for $950 USD and a 9.4 copy of #2 sold for $750 USD. It took about a month and a half for these to sell on eBay.

Afterwards, I put two slightly lower grade copies of the same books for sale.

A 7.0-8.0 copy of Samurai #1 sold for $900 USD and an 8.0 copy of #2 sold for $720 USD.

At the end of the day, it seems that for these specialty items you just have to price them high and wait for offers.

I hope this can help anyone else who someday will be looking for the value of these comics as well.

nice!

Edited April 15, 2021 by SuperBird